Q&A with Grace Charge and Claudia Pascucci

We speak to Grace Charge, Head of Westfield Brand Experience and Partnerships for the UK and Europe, and Claudia Pascucci, Senior Commercial Partnerships Manager at Westfield Mall of the Netherlands

Can you explain what the brand experience is and what it involves?

Grace: Brand experience is ultimately the manifestation of a brand promoting its products across both physical and digital channels. The most successful will use the best combination of assets that resonate with it’s target customer. This ranges from huge, wow effect experiential in the central event space alongside digital media or more simple tactical sampling activity for a short period of time. We work with brands to understand their objectives and then, using our years of experience, recommend a plan for the best results.

How does brand experience benefit visitors to Westfield?

A Brand experience really enhances the customer experience. People visiting our centres want to be entertained, engaged and influenced. One point of difference we have against our competition is our investment into marketing events in our centres – another opportunity for brands and retailers to work with us. The benefit of these events is that it ultimately drives brand awareness and brand trust which converts to product sales when done in the right way.

Why is brand experience more important than ever in today’s climate?

Grace: There’s this real pent-up desire for people to come together,experience physical events, learn new things and be entertained – the opportunity is for brands to activate in this space and drive product sales as a result.

What makes a good brand experience?

Grace: Something that immerses the customer and gives something back in return for their time.. The most successful brand events have the sale as a byproduct of the experience. Some of the automotive brands now playing in this space have shifted their showrooms into the retail space, and are seeing huge success – like Polestar, Volvo, SEAT etc.

What are your plans for brand experience at the Mall of the Netherlands?

Claudia: We are building a new market and aim to be the number-one retail leisure destination in the country. We have an absolutely extraordinary offer in terms of opportunities for brands to use our mall as a platform to showcase their brand values but also to connect with the consumer.

How do you evaluate the results of specific brand events?

Claudia: We try to look at the objectives of the brand and meet those objectives and try to collect as much data as possible. The more data we exchange with each other the more we can measure the impact an event had and whether the brand objectives have been met. Grace: We’re very invested in discovering what success looks like for that brand. We follow up and measure the success post-activation in order to improve it for the next time.

How are you getting retailers on board?

Claudia: We are letting them know that we can tailor everything to work for their objectives and their budget. Grace: We want to get across that regardless of budget, we have a solution. A retailer might not have the budget to do a three-day experiential activation on their own, but they may well have the budget to be part of a wider marketing event with a smaller role to play.

How does Westfield stand out in terms of brand experience?

Grace: Quality of assets, particularly somewhere like the Mall of the Netherlands which is brand new and has the latest technology and digital screens. We also stand out due to the quality of our audience. We offer brands the platform in front of individuals who are in the mindset to be engaged with. Our audiences have come to our malls to spend the day, they want to be entertained, they want to spend money and from a media media perspective we’re able to deliver high resolution, full motion advertising to complement this.

Finally, how successful has Westfield been so far in the Netherlands?

Claudia: Westfield is a new brand in the Netherlands. The Netherlands doesn’t have a mall culture so initially people asked, will that work, will people really come, will Westfield be different enough? I think we have proved that even in the toughest market this mall has opened in the middle of a pandemic and has already exceeded everyone’s expectations. The Dutch no longer need to go abroad to find the great shopping malls, they can now have it at home.

For queries about Commerical Partnerships please email claudia.pascucci@urw.com